Article

On a collection of Malayan maps in the Raffles Library

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

On a collection of Malayan maps in the Raffles Library

J.V. Mills, a Member of the Colonial Service, published this article in 1937 in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society to document his 1934 commission to assemble a collection of early maps and charts of the Malay Peninsula, now housed in the Raffles Library, Singapore. The article functions simultaneously as a catalogue introduction and a candid methodological statement on the nascent state of Malayan cartographic scholarship.

Summary

Mills describes how, commissioned in 1934, he spent months examining map holdings in London—the British Museum, the Royal Geographical Society, the School of Oriental Studies, and the Royal Asiatic Society—before obtaining additional material from the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, the Royal Geographical Institute of Utrecht, and the Royal Library of Munich. The resulting collection of 208 maps and charts is organised into four chronological periods and presented in four portfolios at the Raffles Library. Mills is strikingly self-critical, devoting a substantial portion of the article to enumerating six specific defects in his own work: insufficient searching of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and Danish archives; questionable selection criteria; the use of photostats rather than photographs; reliance on copies rather than originals; imprecise dating; and ambiguous attribution of mapmakers. He frames the collection explicitly as a “first word” rather than a definitive statement, urging future scholars to supersede it (pp. 49–52).

The article also raises the broader historiographical problem of what Mills calls “false-word puzzles” in early cartography—how place names corrupt and transform as they pass from one mapmaker to another across languages and centuries. Citing A.R. Hinks’ observation that “the same details and the same selection of names are repeated with gradual corruption from one map to another,” Mills poses specific unresolved questions about names such as Meduar, Modobar, Mican, and Serga, and the inexplicable placement of “San-fo-chai” (Palembang) in the middle of the Malay Peninsula on a Chinese map of 1584. He notes that full interpretation would require competence in Greek, Latin, English, French, Chinese, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, and Bugis, and suggests collaborative scholarship as a practical solution (p. 52).

Key Findings

  • The collection comprises 208 maps and charts, divided into four periods: before 1600, 1600–1699, 1700–1799, and 1800–1879 (p. 50).
  • The collection terminates at 1879, the year the Royal Asiatic Society published what Mills considers the first adequate modern map of Malaya, which he includes for purposes of comparison (p. 50).
  • A concrete example of copy inaccuracy: the photostat of Eredia’s map of Malacca Territory (No. 90) shows a name near Alor Gajah as “batucuradira,” while the original manuscript in Brussels reads “batucuracura,” the Malay for “tortoise” (p. 51).
  • Dating discrepancies among authorities are illustrated by Vaz Dourado’s map (No. 63): Teliki gives 1560, Caraci prefers 1568, and Abendanon suggests 1580 (p. 52).
  • The subject of Malayan cartography had, as of 1937, been addressed in only two prior works: Sir Hugh Clifford’s Further India (1904) and Rudolf Martin’s Die Inlandstämme der Malayischen Halbinsel (1905) (p. 50).
  • Mills estimates that the error represented by omissions or redundancies in the collection will not exceed approximately ten percent (p. 50).

Conclusion

Mills’ definitive historical takeaway is that the collection represents a necessary but deliberately provisional first step in a field that is “practically untouched.” He positions his work as a stimulus rather than a conclusion, warning future scholars of the difficulties ahead—bitter delays, heart-burning disappointments, and the need for multilingual competence—while expressing the hope that the collection will whet the appetite for further research and ultimately be superseded by a more complete and accurate compilation.

Context

  • Mills held the rank of M.C.S. (Member of the Colonial Service), indicating he was a colonial administrator; the article reflects the scholarly culture of the Straits Settlements in the 1930s, where colonial officials frequently undertook research projects as part of their broader intellectual engagement with the territories they governed.
  • The Raffles Library was itself a colonial institution, and the collection was assembled for the benefit of students and administrators working within the British imperial framework in Malaya.

References